Doctors' offices are charging patients 10 times more by claiming to be hospitals

Something the article doesn't really get into is that Congress and HHS/CMS are passing laws and promulgating regulations that make the practice of medicine so unprofitable that independent physician offices are becoming economically unviable; this process is encouraged by the hospital lobby who of course profit handsomely after purchasing these independent offices.

*in America

> David Merritt, a Blue Cross Blue Shield vice president focused on federal policy, said patients, too, tend to have few options to avoid the fees. “There certainly is no federal protection or even state protection as far as I know,” Merritt said.

Insurance companies are often portrayed as evil, and maybe that's accurate, but we often overlook that sometimes their interests are simply aligned with ours. This practice hurts them, too. Another example is the Covid vaccine, my insurance still covers it. They don't have the luxury of engaging in culture war nonsense. It costs them money if I get hospitalized with Covid symptoms. For their own bottom line, they're not incentivized to use RFK as cover for denying vaccines.